Room to improve for Tooreen despite ten-point win

Tooreen winning by ten points and not being at their best is a pleasant problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.

Another strong second half saw the reigning Mayo and Connacht champions reach a seventh consecutive Connacht intermediate hurling final, bidding to a win a fifth title in a row. Tynagh-Abbey/Duniry will stand in their way of making history but an improved showing will be needed in the decider despite the scoreline.

“I did look up scoreboard there with a few minutes to go and I didn't realise we were up six or seven points, but we didn't play well,” said Tooreen boss Ray Larkin. “Looking back on it, we didn't look like losing either. We put on a few subs there, made a difference.

“We gave away a cheap goal in the first half. We missed an awful lot in the first half, our shots was all over the place and we got them in at half time and just got it right second half.” Like the county final against Ballyhaunis, a high wide count reared its ugly head again, with 16 total and Larkin admits it is something they will have to work on ahead of the final against the Galway champions.

“We had 10 in the first half I suppose, our second half was a little bit better. I think the lads had more time on the ball than they taught they had. They were kind of panic shooting more than anything else.

“I suppose that happened to us in the county final as well but we've got something to work on now for the next couple of weeks.” Larkin added: “It's kind of funny, we tend to be slow starters anyway but we were five points up or something and I suppose we just kind of sat back a small bit. They got a couple of handy frees and then the goal was be a sucker punch. But going a point down in half time, we knew we'd had the legs in the second half because we trained hard enough the last maybe five or six months.

We're happy where we are, and winning by ten points playing bad is a good thing.” St Gabriel’s had chances in the second half to drag themselves back into the game but once again, their defence was superb as David Kenny, Stephen Coyne and Oisin Greally all stood up while the return of Michael Morley was a huge boost.

“We build our team with six backs, Ciaran Finn started today so we're building, probably not where we want to be but we're slowly getting there.” The goal from Eoin Delaney in the second half came at a crucial juncture in the game and the forward was delighted to come through a tough battle.

“We made hard work of it there in the first half. A lot of wides, missed two goalscoring opportunities. We just reset at half-time. We knew if we were there or thereabouts, going into the last 15 minutes, we knew we'd have the legs and thankfully we did. We drove on then the last 15 minutes, got a few scores there at the end so, yeah, delighted now.” “I don't know what the score was when we got the goal but it gave us that bit of breathing space. I felt we lost a bit of shape then after the goal, we started dropping back a bit, made a few subs, got fresh legs in and thankfully drove on from there.

“The boys in the back were unbelievable. Our job up in the forwards was to kind of try and stop the good ball going in. We did our best at that but the backs were clearing ball there and the balls they were playing into us they just made our lives so much easier.” Given their dominance of Connacht since 2019, Tooreen will go into the game as favourites but Delaney is expecting a tough encounter.

“It's a strange one. But look, Tynagh, they'll be a serious outfit. We never have it easy against the Galway champions so it's going to be a huge battle once again in two weeks time. Looking forward to it now.”